Motherhood Meets Mastectomies

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Sandy

We live in a flood zone. The map says zone A, which means in a category 1 hurricane, we are susceptible to flood. I always thought that was bullshit and just another way for the government (via FEMA) to milk a few grand from us every year. I guess they were right after all. After our town issued a mandatory evacuation of our area on Sunday, we debated whether or not to leave. We waited until Monday morning to see the latest weather report and decided we would be better safe than sorry and we left. If it had just been the two of us, we would have stayed, but the thought of possibly being stranded and putting our daughters in harm’s way was enough to make us pack up the car and go. We had a pajama party at my parents house, the power went out and the wind started howling. The girls did not seem phased in the slightest. I, on the other hand, have bitten off all of my nails that had grown out so nicely post-surgery due to lack of my usual manual labor. I turned off my phone during the night to preserve the battery and woke to many messages from my neighbors. They sent pictures which showed my house with water up the garage door and the mudroom steps. The street looked like a river spotted with houses on its banks and remnants of our fence were scattered across three different neighboring streets. That’s pretty intense imagery for a Tuesday morning. When we got there to check it out firsthand, we saw that we only sustained a little over a foot of water in the garage (where my husband’s car, baby strollers, supplies, and memorabilia, etc are stored). We were fortunate that the water hadn’t actually reached inside of our house. Other than the lack of power, the inside is totally intact. Since we had just had our trees trimmed Saturday morning, we didn’t have any damage from fallen limbs either. We are feeling very very lucky. Although we still don’t have power and we are mooching power, heat and comfort from my parents (their generosity is never ending), we are very fortunate. So many of our friends and neighbors have been devastated by this natural disaster. It seems the older I get, the more I realize how much is truly out of my control. We tried to prepare and handle the warnings we were issued, just like my BRCA results (yes, in my mind at least, even this draws a comparison). I heeded the warnings from my doctors just as we did from the town and shot for our best chance of survival. We feel lucky, but our hearts and thoughts are with so many that were not as lucky.